Movie theatres provide viewers a facility for escape from everyday events. Movie theatres typically include large viewing screens for presentation of films ranging from drama, adventure, comedy, suspense and mystery, and other such fair. In addition to the visual presentation of the film, theatres also include powerful sound systems with amplifiers and speakers positioned within the auditorium of the theatre to enhance the visual effect of the film being shown.
Often the auditorium of the theatre is housed in buildings with high ceilings, which have broad wall surfaces extending from the screen to the back of the theatre past the many rows of seats. To accommodate the acoustical characteristics of movie theatres, the walls typically include dampening material as an exterior surface. The damping material absorbs the sound so that sound does not repeat and echo through the auditorium during the course of the film but rather the sounds of the continuing scenes may be clearly heard.
Typically, movie theatre interior walls are covered with drapery material placed as curtains along the walls of the theatre. The drapery material dampens the sound. A common drapery or curtain used in many theatres is pleated from the ceiling to about four to six feet off the floor. A carpet covers the lower portion of the wall. The pleated curtain provides not only the acoustic effect, but an ornamental appearance as well. Typically the drapery curtains on walls of theatres have four-inch box pleats at nine-inch spacing, extending from approximately four feet off the floor to the ceiling.
The labor to prepare, handle, and install drapery curtains in theatre interiors is significant. A special sewing shop is required. Large tables are necessary to receive the elongate sheets of drapery fabric. Typically the drapery fabric is provided in 54 inch widths. The length of the fabric is sufficient to extend between a ceiling trim near the ceiling and a wall trim vertically spaced from the floor. Often these lengths are 30 or 40 feet or more. The entire length of a fabric has to be pleated.
The drapery fabric is measured for length and cut from a bolt of fabric. The fabric then is laid on the table where the pleats are measured, marked with pens, and sewn across the top to form the pleat. A jute backing often is applied using a top and bottom stitch. The pleated length of fabric is then marked so that installers can identify the portion of the wall on which the pleated fabric drapery is to be installed. The completed drapery is packed and shipped to the job site. At the job site, workers unpack the boxes and install the drapery curtains in the appropriate sequence.
The measuring, cutting, and sewing is extensively labor intensive and time consuming. This results in significant costs associated with installing or replacing interior drapery treatments for movie theatres.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improved method and apparatus of preparing and installing acoustical wall coverings for sound dampening of walls in movie theatres. It is to such that the present invention is directed.